Social Sentiment - How It Works
Overview
SwaggyStocks tracks stock market chatter across public internet sources and turns it into simple, interpretable sentiment signals. We intentionally use a bag-of-words (BoW) and rules-based/key-terms pipeline-not heavyweight neural NLP models-to keep the system fast, explainable, and robust for market-specific language. Sentiment trading can be volatile and risky; this page explains how we process data so you can understand what the numbers mean. This is not financial advice.
What We Track
Ticker Mentions
References to symbols (e.g., GME, AAPL) in public posts and comments across tracked communities and forums.
BoW Keywords
Directional phrases, idioms, and trading slang mapped to bullish, bearish, or neutral intent (e.g., “calls,” “puts,” “short,” “to the moon,” “dump”).
Context Flags
Rule modifiers for events like earnings, short reports, catalysts, or macro news that shift confidence or weighting.
What Counts as Bullish, Bearish, or Neutral?
Bullish
The author expresses or implies positive directional intent (e.g., “calls,” “long,” “buying dips,” “squeeze incoming”).
Bearish
Negative directional intent (e.g., “puts,” “short,” “overpriced,” “sell the rip”).
Neutral
Informational chatter without clear intent (events, product announcements, headlines), or mixed/ambiguous phrasing that doesn’t pass thresholds.
Certain events (e.g., short reports, fraud allegations, earnings surprises) often create more one-sided sentiment as directional language spikes.
Metrics You’ll See
- Total Mentions: Total messages referencing a ticker.
- Bullish / Bearish / Neutral Counts: Labeled message totals per period.
- Net Sentiment: Bullish minus Bearish (optionally normalized).
- Momentum/Trend: Period-over-period changes in mentions or net sentiment.
- Leaderboards: Ranked tickers by volume, net sentiment, or velocity.
Data Quality Guardrails
- Spam & Bot Filters: De-duplication, rate limits, and heuristic filters mitigate brigading and low-effort spam.
- Ticker Collisions: Common words that look like tickers are excluded via allow/deny lists and proximity rules.
- Source Weighting: No single community dominates aggregate results.
Limitations & Edge Cases
A rules-based approach is intentionally simple and explainable, but it won’t “understand” nuance like a human. Sarcasm, irony, and complex reasoning can slip through. Volume can be a crowding signal rather than alpha. Sentiment can lead or lag price. Treat these dashboards as one input among many (fundamentals, liquidity, options positioning, flows, macro).
How to Use the Dashboards
Early Signals
Watch for accelerating mentions + rising net sentiment. Confirm with price/volume and your thesis before acting.
Event Context
Earnings, guidance, short reports, and product news can skew signals. Compare prior periods to spot abnormal spikes.
Risk Management
Sentiment trades are volatile. Size positions appropriately and plan exits in advance.
Cross-Checks
Pair sentiment with options activity, liquidity, and fundamentals for a full picture.
Disclaimers
SwaggyStocks provides market sentiment analytics for informational purposes only. We do not make recommendations or provide investment advice. Markets are risky-always do your own research and consider consulting a licensed professional.
Questions?
Reach us at contact@swaggymedia.com.